This
study was aimed at exploring the correlation among over-education,
educational-job mismatch and the skills of university graduate jobseekers in
the labor market of Iran. Its prime objective was to find out whether skills of
jobseekers could leave a significant effect on the reduction of educational
mismatch. To this end, at first, the concepts of educational-mismatch and
over-education are introduced. Then, the theoretical bases of the relationship
between skill and educational-mismatch in labor market are analyzed. Finally,
through micro-data taken from local jobseekers with university degrees who
registered in private job-finding agencies (JFAs) in Urmia in 2015, this relationship
was estimated in this descriptive case-study. Out of a population of 3481 job
applicants with tertiary education (bachelor’s or above degrees), 366 were
selected based on random sampling. Regression analysis and Logit model were
utilized to investigate this relationship. In our regression analysis,
over-education was considered as the dependent variable, while age, gender and
skill acted as explanatory variables. The findings of this study indicate that
with rising qualifications of the university graduate job applicants, the
possibility of over-education and education-occupation mismatch increases, but
there is negative correlation with age and probability of educational mismatch.